Automatic fire-kindler.



W. F. HUDSON.

AUTOMATIC FIRE KINDLER.

APPLICATION man FEB-25.19I8.

Patented Mar. 25, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

gwucnfoz F UDSON aim: not

W. F. HUDSON.

AUTOMATIC FIRE KINDLER. APPLICATION FILED FEB.25.'I9I8.

Patented Mar. 25,1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

attorney W. F. HUDSON.

AUTOMATIC FIRE KINDLER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 25. 1918.

1,298,214. Patented Mar. 25,1919.

3 SHEET$-SHEET 3.

W. F HUDSON UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM F. HUDSON, OF ROCKINGHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR 0F ONEI-IALFT0 BENJAMIN J. BOSTICK, OF ROCKINGHAM, NORTH CAROLINA.

AUTOMATIC IEIRE-KINDLER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 25, 1919.

Application filed February 25, 1918. Serial No. 219,104.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM F. HonsoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Rockingham, in the county of Richmond and State of NorthCarolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AutomaticFire-Kindlers, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to devices for kindling fires, and particularlyto automatic fire kindlers.

The general object of the invention is to provide means acting at apredetermined time for discharging onto a grate a certain amount of fueland readily combustible ma terial, and providing means for igniting thecombustible material as the fuel is discharged onto the grate.

A further object in this connection is to provide a blower which, assoon as the fuel is discharged into the grate, will slip down in frontof the opening of the fireplace, grate or stove so as to cause a draftup through the ignited material and fuel.

A further object is to provide a device of this character including analarm clock or other time actuated mechanism which at a predeterminedtime will release the support for the scuttle containing the combustiblematerial so as to permit it to shift toward the fireplace and dischargethereinto and at the same time ignite the match which will set fire tothe combustible material.

Still another object is to provide in connection with the fireplace anarm swingingly mounted at one side of the fireplace and normally urgedby gravity to a position across the fireplace, to provide a tiltablymounted scuttle on the arm normally held in a horizontal position, andto provide clock operated means forrele'asing said arm to permit it toswing toward the opening in the fireplace and to provide scuttlereleasing means which will engage with the wall of the fireplace andcause the scuttle to tilt and discharge its contents.

Still another object is the provision of a spring actuated match holderand striking plate and the provision of a latch normally holding thematch holder from rotation to carry the match against the striking plateand provide means actuated by the afore said clock for releasing thematch striking means so that the spring is shifted to draw thematch'across the striking plate.

Another object is to provide a construction as above described with ablower plate mounted upon a bail swingingly mounted upon the scuttle,the blower plate normally being disposed in a vertical position andyieldably retained therein above the scuttle until the scuttle tilts,the blower plate then sliding downward over the upper edges of thescuttle and eventually being disposed in a vertical plane against thefireplace opening.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure1 is a'perspective view of my fire kindler in applied position showingin full lines the fire kindler retracted and in dotted lines the kindlerdisposed in discharging position with the blower closed;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the wall of the fireplaceshowing in elevation the adjacent portion of the fire kindler;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the construction illustrated in Fig. 2, thepintle 12 being in section and the clock mechanism being removed;

Fig. 4 is a front elevation ofthe bracket 10;

Fig. 5 is a plan view looking at the underside of the scuttle showingthe match striking mechanism;

Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view through the match holder and amatch carried therein;

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the disk 44;

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of the scuttle the scuttle turned todischarge its contents and. the blower slipped into place over thefireplace opening.

Referring to these drawings, A designates the wall of a fireplace, a.being the fireplace opening. I wish it understood that while I haveillustrated this as applied to a fireplace having an ordinary fireplaceopening, that I do not wish to limit myself to this, as it may beapplied to stoves, furnaces, or in other like heating appliances and Ifurther wish it understood that by the term fireplace I refer to anyconstruction having an opening through which fuel may be CllS- charged.

Disposed at one side of the fireplace opening is the supporting bracket10 formed of a strip of metal, the upper and lower ends of which areoutwardly bent as at 11 and disposed in these ears thus formed is thepintle 12, as it may be termed. The wall of the fireplace is providedwith outwardly projecting studs 13 and the bracket '10 is formed withkey-hole slots 14, the contracted ends of which are disposed upward.Thus the kindler may be" readily attached to or detached from the wallof the fireplace. Preferably, and for a reason which will hereafterappear, the bracket 10 is not exactly vertical, but the bracket isinclined somewhat so that its upper end is nearer the fireplace openinga than its lower end.

Mounted upon the pintle12 and rotatable therewith is an arm 15, which isillustrated as made of a metal pipe connected to the pintle by means ofan elbow 16. Ehis pipe is angularly bent for a portion of its length.Rotatabl mounted upon the arm 15 is a scuttle l this scuttlebeingprovided with downwardly projecting ears 18 extending below the bottomof the scuttle, these ears being perforated for the passage of the arm15. Collars 19 are disposed upon the armjust outward of the ears 18,these collars being held to the cars by set screws or in any othersuitable manner. One of the collars is provided withan angularlyprojecting pin 20 constituting a stop limiting the tilting movement ofthe scuttle in one direction. Both of these collars are provided withra-. dially projecting pins 21, each-of the ears 18 being provided withoutwardly projecting pins 22, coacting with the arms and limitingtherotation of the scuttle in a direction to discharge the contents ofthe scuttle. The scuttle is held in a horizontal position by'means of'alatch 23, which comprises a relatively elongated strip of metalpivotally mounted upon a pin 24, the upper end of which is downwardlyand rearwardly curved as at 25 to form a detent which engages with theextremity of the adjacent pin 21, the'opposite end of this latch 23extending downward and forward to a position be- Fig. 8, the scuttlecannot tilt downward to.

discharge its contents and inasmuch as the weight of the fuel isdisposed over the forward portion of the. scuttle, consequently upon'thescuttle being unbalanced, the scuttle will not tilt rearward. When thelower endof the latch 23 is forced outward, the upper end releases itsengagement with the spring 21 and, under these circumstances, thescuttle will tilt to its discharging posi= tion as illustrated in Fig.9, and discharge the contents of the scuttle.

For the purpose of holding the arm 15 in a. position approximately atright angles to the face of the fireplace A, I mount upon the bracket10, the detent 27, this detent being in the form of a strip of metalbolted, riveted, or otherwise attached to the bracket, extending formedwith a notch 28. Mounted upon the arm 15 is a collar 29 having anoutwardly projecting pin 30, and pivotally mounted upon this pin is anarm 31, which mg out .at right angles thereto and bent out-v ward at itsend, this outwardly bent end be is angular in form and atits rear end isformed with a loop 32 adapted to engage with the notch 28 of the detent27. This arm constitutes a latch. The forward, downwardly extending,angular end of the arm 3 1 is connected by a link 33 to match'strikingmechanism which will be later described. Also pivotally mounted upon thepin 30 is an arm 34 carrying a pin 35 which, when this arm 34 is rotatedin a counterclockwise direction, strikes the arm 31 so as to rotate thearm 31 with the arm 34.- A spring 3 6 which is coiled around the pin 31acts to urge the arm 34 in a counter-clockwise direction. The extremityof the arm 34 is provided with a plurality of perforations and engagingin any of these perforations is a hook 37. Mounted upon the arm-15,

to swing therewith, is a time controlled motor in the form of an alarmclock,

designated 38, this clock having the usual Winding keys 39 and 40, thekey 40 being the alarm winding key. When the alarm.

goes off this. key 40 will rotate and it is designed that the hook '37shall engage with this'key 40 so that when this key 40 rotates under theaction of the alarm mechanism, it will release'the hook 37, thuspermittingthe controlling arm 34 to shift in a counterclockwisedirection, and thus raise the loop 32 on the arm 31 out of itsengagement with the detent 28. The arm 15 will then swing from aposition at right angles with the face of the fireplace A into aposition parallel thereto with the scuttle in a position to dischargeinto the fireplace opening.

While I do not wish to limit myself to any particular means .formounting the alarm cloek'38 upon the arm 13, I have illustrated for thispurpose the arm as provided with collars 41 having screw-threaded pinsprojecting from them and I have shown two semi-circular clamps 42 havingangularly bent extremities through which these pins pass. Nuts 43 bearagainst these angular extremitiesand force the clamps intoclampingengagement with the alarm clock. While I have described an alarmclock as being used, it will 'be obvious that special time controlledmechanism may be used in place of the alarm clock.

For the purpose of igniting the fuel, I mount upon the underside of thescuttle, adj acent its discharge end, a rotatable disk 44 having a notch45 at one point in its circumference. Pivot-ally mounted upon this plateis a Z-shaped match holder 46 one extremity of which is formed toprovide a match clamp 47, the other extremity having an ear with whichengages one end of a contractile spring 48, the other end of this springbeing engaged with a; lug 49 struck up from the disk 44. Coacting withthe match which is supported in the clamp 47 is a curved flange orstriking plate 50, which is disposed concentrically to the axis ofrotation of the disk 44, the match supported in the clamp beingfrictionally engaged with this plate as the disk 44 rotates.

For the purpose of rotating the disk 44 I provide a springarm 51 havinga coil 52 engaged with a lug 53, one end of this spring 51 being held bya socket 54, the free end of the spring 51 being hooked, as at 55 andengaged with this hook is a link 56 which extends downward between thedisk 44 and the bottom of the scuttle and is pivotally connected to thedisk 44. The spring arm 51, therefore, tends to rotate the disk 44 in a:clockwise direction. For the purpose of preventing the rotation of thisdisk 44, I provide a latch 57 pivoted at 58 having a detent lug 59engageable in the notch 45 and being urged into this engagement by aspring 60. To the extremity of the latch lever 57 is attached a link .33previously referred to.

Now when the alarm mechanism of the clock is released, the arm 34 isreleased as previously described and the spring rotates the arms 34 and31 in a counter-clockwise direction drawing upon the link 33 and thisshifts the latch lever 57 to a position to release the disk 44. The disktherefore rotates carrying with it the arm 46 and the match is drawnacross the flange or striking plate 50 and the ignited match isprojected beyond the forward edge of the scuttle so as i to ignite thecombustible material which may be disposed upon the scuttle. Thiscombustible material may be oil soaked, waste, excelsior, light wood, orany other material which will readily ignite upon the application of thematch thereto.

After the fuel has been discharged into the opening a, it is of coursedesirable to provide some means for closing this opening so that air maypass upward through the ignited fuel through suitable draft openings,and to this end I have provided a blower plate 61 being a fiat plate ofsheet iron having a size slightly greater than that of the fireplaceopening and having lugs 62 projecting from its outer face. A U-shapedlink 63 has its cross bar pass through the perforations in these lugs 62and the legs of this link are pivotally mounted upon the sides of thescuttle as at 64. The legs of this link are long enough to permit theplate to be disposed in a vertical position between the wall of thefireplace and the discharge end of the scuttle. The upper edges of theside walls of the scuttle are notched as at 65 to engage and form seatsfor the lower edge of the plate 61, these notches having their loweredges extending at a slight angle to the upper edges of the side wallsof the scuttle. \Vhen the scuttle is filled with fuel, the plate 61 isdisposed in a vertical position with its lower edge resting on the seats65 and will be sustained in this position until the scuttle has beentilted bythe release of the latch 23. hen the scuttle tilts, however,the lower edge of the plate 61 will slide off of the seat 65 and theweight of the late 61 will cause it to move forward and c ownward untilit is slipped between the discharge end of the scuttle and thefireplace, as illustrated in Fig. 9.

The operation of this mechanism will be understood from what has gonebefore. Normally the arm 15 is shifted to a position approximately atright angles to the face of the fireplace, the latching loop 32 beingengaged with the latch 28. The disk 44 is in the position shown indotted lines in Fig. 5, with the latch lug 59 engaged in the lug 45 andwith a match disposed in the extremity of the arm 46. The scuttle isfilled and in a horizontal position and is held in this horizontalposition by the latch 23. The blower plate 61 is in a substantiallyvertical position resting upon the seats (35. The alarm is set and atthe proper time the alarm mechanism of the clock operates to rotate thewinding key 40 which releases the arm 34. This arm 34 moves in acounter-clockwise direction under the action of the spring 36 and indoing so rotates the arm 31 in a counter-clockwise direction, thusreleasing the loop 32 from the latch 28 and at the same time releasingthe'latch 57 from its engagement with the disk 44. Thematch is carriedacross the striker 50, ignites the material in the scuttle, and underthe weight 'of the scuttle, the arm swings into a position parallel tothe face of the fireplace until suchtime as the lower end of the latch23 strikes the wall of the fireplace, when the detent 25 released andthe scuttle tilts "under the action of the weight of fuel and under theaction of the spring 26, thus discharging the contents of the scuttleinto the opening of the fireplace. The tilting of the scuttle releasesthe blower plate 61, which slides forward and downward and closes theopening of the fireplace after the fuel has been discharged thereinto.The plate 61 is preferably provided at its upper end with a handle 66whereby it may be readily lifted,

' if desired, without the necessity of shifting the arm 15 away. Thedevice may be readily attached to or detached from the fireplace byengaging the bracket 10 with the studs scribed, the'alarm bell willsound'the same time that the fire iskindle'd. It is obvious, ofcourse,'-that there is no necessity of using the match strikingmechanism, but that my mechanism may be used for discharging fuel intoan already lighted fire at a predetermined time and. applying the blowerthereto, or the blower may be so set asnot to drop when the'fuel isdischarged. If it be desired to remove the blowerthis may be readilydone by shifting -the arms of the yoke or link 63 out of engagement withthe openings 64L.

While I haveillustrated certain features which I believe to bethoroughly effective, it is obvious that I do not Wish to be .limited tothis, 'as many modifications might be made within the scope of theappended claims, without departing from the principle of my invention.

As illustrated inFig. 5, I may provide on the bottom of the scuttle 17,a lever 66 which is normally in the position illustrated'in full linesin Fig. 5, this lever being slightly bowshaped in, form, the purposeofthis lever being to permit the'operation of the match striking deviceand the scuttle release when the arm 15 is pivotally mounted at the leftof, the fireplace'instead of on the right, as illustrated in'Fig. 1. Inthis case the lever .66 'is to be-connected by a-rod 33* to the clockactuated releasing mechanism and a link .67 is to be used between theopposite end of the-lever 66 and the arm 57 as illustrated in dottedlines in Fig. 5. Thus I provide a fire kindling device which can bedisposed on one side or the other of the firelace as ma be mostconvenient.

Having described my invention, whatI- claim is V r p 1. A fire kindlerincluding a bracket, an arm swingingly mounted on the bracket formovement in a horizontal plane, a scuttle rotatably carried by the armformovement in a vertical plane and urged to an inclined dischargingposition, means for releasing V the arm from a predetermined positionallowing the arm to swing to a discharging position, and automatic meansfor releasing the scuttle and allowing it to tip toa dis-j chargingposition when the arm has swung to a predetermined position.

2. A fire kindler including a bracket, an

arm swingingly mounted upon the bracket for movement in a horizontalplane, a scuttle tiltably mounted upon the arm for move,- ment in avertical plane and urged to an inclined discharging position, ashiftable match holder mounted on the scuttle-and coacting with astriking plate, means for releasing the'arm from a predetermined'position and allowing it to swing to a predetermined dischargingposition,means then acting to release the scuttle to permit it to tip todischarge its contents, and means acting upon aswinging of the arm tocause the the holding means for the arm, and auto-' matically actuated,means for releasing the holding means from the scuttle when the arm andscuttle have arrived at a predetermined position.

4. A fire kindler including a tilt ablescute tle, means normally holdingthe scuttle in a horizontal position in front of'a fireplace,

a blower plate mounted upon the scuttle and normally supported above thescuttle when the latter is in a horizontal position,

means for releasing the scuttle and permitting it to tilt to a dischargeposition, said blower plate being thereby-i released and shifting to avertical position in front of the scuttle. v 7

5. A fire kindler including -a scuttle 'mounted upon a fireplace andhaving tiltable movement in a vertical plane, a U- shaped 'yo'ke havingits arm swingingly engaged with the sides of the scuttle, a blower platepivotally mounted upon said yoke,the sldes of the scuttle being providedwith seats in which the lower edge of the plate normally rests, theblower plate sliding ofi the sides of the scuttle and moving to avertical position. when the scuttle is tipped.

6. A fire kindler including a scuttle movable to a position to dischargeits contents into a fireplace, and a match striking device mounted uponthe scuttle, normally held in an inoperative position, but automaticallyreleased when the scuttle is moved into a discharging position.

7. A fire kindler including a scuttle movable into a dischargingposition, means constantly urging the scuttle into said position,

means holding the scuttle from movement into a discharging positionunder the action of said urging means, and means for re leasing saidholding means.

8. A fire kindler including a scuttle movable in a horizontal plane froma predetermined position into a discharging position and urged into saiddischarging position, said scuttle being mounted for tipping movement ina vertical plane to discharge the contents of the scuttle and beingurged into an inclined discharging position, means for releasingthe'scuttle to permit it to shift to its discharging position, andautomatically actuated means for releasing the scuttle to permit it torotate in a vertical plane to its inclined discharging position.

9. A fire kindler including a bracket, an arm swingingly mounted on thebracket for movement in a horizontal plane, a scuttle rotatably mountedon the free end of the arm for movement in a vertical plane and urged toa downwardly inclined discharging position, a releasable latch normallyholding the arm in a predetermined inoperative position, and a latchmounted on the scuttle and engageable with the arm to hold the scuttlein a horizontal position, said latch projecting beyond the scuttle.

10. In a fire kindlcr, a supporting bracket, an arm mounted at one endof the bracket for movement in a horizontal plane toward and from afireplace, a scuttle rotatably mounted upon the arm for movement in avertical plane, a latch pivoted upon the scuttle intermediate its ends,one end of the latch being formed with a detent, a spring urging thedetent end of the latch in one direction and the opposite end of thelatch into a position beyond the discharge end of the scuttle, and amember mounted upon the arm with which said detent end of the latchengages, said latch when so engaged holding the scuttle in a verticalposition. this engagement with the latch permitting the scuttle torotate to a downwardly inclined discharge position.

11. A fire kindler comprising a bracket, an arm swingingly mounted uponthe bracket and urged from an inoperative position to a dischargingposition, a scuttle carried upon said arm, a detent mounted upon thebracket, a latch pivotally mounted upon the scuttle supporting arm andhaving one extremity engaging said detent, a spring urging said latch toa position out of engagement with the detent, and means normallypreventing the rotation of the latch under the action of the spring butreleasing said latch at a predetermined time to permit the scuttlecarrying arm to swing to its operative discharging position.

12. The combination with a fireplace having a fireplace opening, of ascuttle mounted for movement toward or from the fireplace opening andurged toward the fireplace opening, said scuttle being mounted formovement from a horizontal to a tilted discharging position, and a latchnormally holding the scuttle in a horizontal position, said latch havingone end projected beyond the scuttle and adapted to be engaged by thewall of a fireplace when the scuttle is shifted into a predeterminedrelation to the fireplace to thereby permit the tilting of the scuttleand the discharge of its contents into the fireplace opening.

13. The combination with a fireplace having an opening, of a scuttlemovable toward or from the fireplace, a shiftable match holder mountedupon the scuttle, a striking plate with which the match holder coacts,mean urging the match holder to shift across the striking plate, meansfor holding the match holder from such movement, and

means for releasing said holding means tion to carry the match holdingarm parallel to the striking plate, a detent lever pivoted upon thescuttle and engageable with the disk to hold it in position against theaction of said spring, a link extending from the latch lever, and meansfor releasing the scuttle to permit it to shift toward the fireplace,said means being connected to the link to thereby cause the release ofthe match striking mechanism at the same time.

15. The combination with a fireplace having a fireplace opening, ofstuds projecting from the face of the fireplace, a bracket havingkey-hole slots engaging said studs, a pintle mounted on the bracket, anarm engaging the pintle and-swinging from a position plane, said scuttlebeing urged to an inclined discharging position, a latch normallyholdand being operatively connected to the match ing the scuttle in ahorizontal position, but striking means to release the latter while thereleased by engagement with the Wall of the scuttle is moving toward thefireplace. V, fireplace when the scuttle approaches it, a In testimonywhereof I hereunto aflix my 5 match striking mechanism mounted on thesignature in the presence of two witnesses. 15

scuttle, and means for holding the arm in a position approximately atright angles to WILLIAM HUDSON" the fireplace, and means releasing saidhold .VVitnesses: ing means to permit the arm to swing to J. .R.MoLINnoN, 10 carry the scuttle to a discharging position BOB V. HOWELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G." r

